New Delhi: Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj didn’t win a single seat within the not too long ago concluded Bihar meeting elections, nevertheless it formed the competition excess of its closing tally signifies. It secured 3.3 p.c of the votes, with 236 of its 238 candidates dropping deposits.

In as much as 34 constituencies, the Jan Suraaj polled extra votes than the successful margin, altering outcomes for each alliances. The Mahagathbandhan misplaced 18 such seats, and the Nationwide Democratic Alliance (NDA) misplaced 15. Six seats slipped away from the Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP) and 5 from the Janata Dal (United) or JD(U). Nevertheless, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) bore the brunt, dropping 14 such seats. This was regardless of the occasion successful the best vote share within the state alone.

In Sonepur, the BJP’s Vinay Kumar Singh defeated the RJD’s Dr Ramanuj Prasad by 4,767 votes, whereas the Jan Suraaj’s Chandan Lal Mehta secured 11,977—greater than double the successful margin.

In one in all its strongest performances, the Jan Suraaj completed second in Marhaura, the place RJD’s Jitendra Kumar Rai received by 27,928 votes. Jan Suraaj’s Naveen Kumar Singh polled a powerful 58,190 votes.

The Jan Suraaj’s Sarafaraj Alam received 35,354 votes in Jokihat, considerably decreasing the successful margin of AIMIM’s Mohammad Murshid Alam over JD(U)’s Manzar Alam, which observers anticipated to be far greater.

There’s, nevertheless, no conclusive proof on which alliance misplaced extra seats due to Prashant Kishor’s candidates. Analysts warning that Jan Suraaj’s affect diverse throughout areas and caste clusters.

Bihar’s 2025 election narrative closely leaned in the direction of youth aspiration and girls’s vote consolidation, and Jan Suraaj—even in defeat—sits squarely on the coronary heart of that story. Making it extra consequential is Bihar’s gendered turnout sample, with ladies outvoting males.

Sanjay Kumar, a widely known political analyst, believes the Jan Suraaj appealed to the younger, educated Bihari. Regardless of their poor efficiency, he credited Prashant Kishor with shifting the narrative in Bihar in the direction of growth. The discuss of making jobs inside Bihar for its massive migrant workforce—seven p.c of the inhabitants—appeared very optimistic in the course of the marketing campaign stage, forcing different events to take discover and inspiration.

On what this meant, Sanjay Kumar mentioned, “These are simply child steps for the brand new occasion.”

When the Jan Suraaj was in contrast with the Aam Aadmi Celebration (AAP), as one other political upstart, he mentioned, “Bihar is 85-90 p.c rural, and caste politics dominates. Delhi, however, is city, with a big ‘center class’ that supported the AAP. The AAP was additionally a product of a giant anti-corruption marketing campaign, whereas JSP is ranging from scratch.”

The Jan Suraaj performed a spoiler this election, Rahul Verma, a fellow on the Heart for Coverage Analysis (CPR), mentioned. Prashant Kishor’s assaults focused the BJP, however he was relentless with Tejashwi Yadav.

“Making him look entitled, incompetent, uneducated—that even with a former Chief Minister father, he was nonetheless a Class 9 fail,” commented Verma. This line of assault performed into the NDA narrative, not directly endorsing its well-oiled election-winning equipment and the long-running governance of each Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. “Trying on the vote-share and the NDA’s mandate, I don’t assume the Jan Suraaj would have influenced the ultimate final result. Prashant Kishor’s actual influence was making the NDA look higher by comparability,” he mentioned.

Prashant Kishor has, thus far, not reacted to Friday’s ballot outcomes. He had maintained earlier that whatever the outcomes, he would proceed to combat to alter Bihar as much as at the very least 2031, when he would full 10 years in politics.

Johan Jose is an alum of ThePrint College of Journalism, and is at present interning with ThePrint.

(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)

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